On June 22, the 4th China International Supply Chain Promotion Expo (Chain Expo) officially opened in Beijing.
As the guest country of this year’s Chain Expo, Australia participated in the exhibition in an official national capacity for the first time. It brought more than 30 innovative companies in the new energy field and many top academic institutions to the exhibition, becoming the focus of the new energy track of this exhibition.
At the “China-Australia Renewable Energy Industry Cooperation Matchmaking Meeting” held on the first day of the opening ceremony, John Grimes, CEO of the Australian Smart Energy Council, publicly stated that the partnership between China and Australia in the field of renewable energy has lasted for more than 40 years, and the two parties are natural partners.
Grimes’ statement accurately summarizes the long-term division of labor logic between the two parties in the clean energy supply chain: “The solar energy technology used in the world today was invented in Australia and manufactured in China.”
Over the years, the complementary model of “Australian technology research and development + Chinese large-scale manufacturing” has always been the core foundation of China-Australia renewable energy cooperation.
During this matchmaking meeting, Australia clearly identified the four major areas of photovoltaics, energy storage, electric transportation, and green mining as the key directions for deepening cooperation. At the same time, it proposed to extend cooperation from a single product manufacturing link to the entire supply chain including mineral raw material supply, technology joint research and development, and terminal scenario applications.
Australia’s high-profile participation in the exhibition has a clear industrial layout logic behind it.
As an important global supplier of iron ore and key minerals, Australia is currently accelerating industrial decarbonization and green transformation. The 30 companies participating in this exhibition cover the entire industry chain from technology research and development to project operations. Academic institutions such as the University of New South Wales also attended the group. The core appeal is to find new partners for technology implementation.
The Australian representative made it clear that China and Australia can create value in all aspects of the supply chain, from mineral resources used to manufacture products, to terminal products such as batteries, solar panels, and electric vehicles, to innovative research and development and technology implementation. There is broad room for cooperation.
It is worth noting that Australia’s participation in the exhibition did not bring a new inter-governmental agreement text, but mainly a list of enterprise cooperation. The Australian Trade and Investment Commission, which participated in the preparation of the exhibition, also focused on building a docking platform for enterprises rather than signing a new special cooperation agreement between countries. This also means that Australia’s current cooperation strategy is more inclined to “enterprise-led, project-driven”, first accumulating implementation results in actual commercial cooperation, and then pushing back to establish an institutional cooperation framework between governments.
For China, the manufacturing scale, complete supply chain system and mature infrastructure in the field of clean energy are China’s core cooperation advantages.
As Grimes stated in public: “China is the center of the global supply chain. If you are interested in the supply chain, you must come to China.”
At the opening ceremony of this Chain Expo, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade released the “Beijing Initiative for the Fourth Chain Expo”, which clearly proposed consensus on “improving the resilience of global industrial and supply chains” and “promoting green and low-carbon development”, providing institutional support for deepening cooperation between China and Australia’s business community.
China also hopes to use national platforms such as the China Chain Expo to attract international companies to deeply embed themselves in China’s supply chain and consolidate China’s position as a global clean energy manufacturing hub. It is not pursuing the signing of short-term agreements, but hopes to bind international partners more firmly into China’s supply chain network.
At present, both parties have a large number of corporate cooperation cases to explore the way for subsequent cooperation: Australian mining giant Ford River Group has cooperated with XCMG Group to promote the application of zero-emission mining equipment, and cooperated with Longi Green Energy, Envision Technology, and BYD to build integrated green energy systems for wind, solar, and storage. These projects cover multiple dimensions such as equipment manufacturing, project operations, and intelligent technology, which are the best footnotes of the “enterprise first” cooperation model.
However, there are certain constraints on the current cooperation between the two parties: on the one hand, there is currently a lack of institutional cooperation framework between governments, and corporate cooperation lacks higher-level policy guidance and financial guarantees. On the other hand, the two sides have different demands. The Australian side is more concerned about technology transformation and market access, while the Chinese side is more concerned about the linkage of key mineral supply and R&D sources. How to achieve a balance of interests in different links of the supply chain and avoid falling into a simple resource exchange model is the focus of the two sides’ subsequent integration.
The 40-year history of cooperation between China and Australia in the field of renewable energy is a unique foundation for the two sides to deepen cooperation. Next, whether the two sides can promote inter-governmental trust and the implementation of an institutional cooperation framework, and whether Australian companies can find full-link partners in the Chinese market, will become key variables for how far the cooperation can go.
At present, the foundation and willingness for cooperation have been put on the table. Whether the two parties can transform enterprise-level cooperation into a sustainable win-win model in the future deserves continued attention from the industry.
